Pandemic slows for sixth week

The coronavirus pandemic slowed for a sixth week in a row around the world.

Here is the global state of play based on an AFP database.

Slowing down

The number of new daily cases decreased by seven percent globally to 422,400, according to an AFP tally to Thursday.

The pandemic had gained ground since mid-June fanned by the highly contagious Delta variant which has become predominant in most countries. But for more than a month and a half now it has been in decline.

However, the confirmed cases only reflect a fraction of the actual number of infections, with varying counting practices and levels of testing in different countries.

Improvement in most regions

This week most of the regions of the world saw an improvement, with 32 percent less new cases in Africa, 20 percent less in Asia, 15 percent less in the Latin America and Caribbean zone, 11 percent less in the United States and Canada and 10 percent less in the Middle East.

But there was a seven percent increase in Europe and 13 percent more in Oceania.

Biggest spikes

Singapore, one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world, saw the biggest spike in the number of new cases, with an 80 percent increase.

The Asian city state was followed by a string of countries in Eastern Europe, with a 59 percent increase in Poland, 48 percent in Latvia, 40 percent in Ukraine and Romania and 28 percent more in Slovakia.

Eastern European countries have vaccinated their population at a slower rate than in Western Europe.

Biggest drops

At the other end of the spectrum, Japan saw the biggest drop with a 48 percent decrease in the number of cases, followed by Vietnam with 42 percent less, Morocco 40 percent less, Bangladesh 35 percent less and South Africa 33 percent less.

US has most infections

The US remained by far the country with the biggest number of new cases, with 100,700 per day, a decrease of 11 percent. It was followed by the United Kingdom with 34,200 cases, a drop of one percent, and Turkey with 29,000, an increase of five percent.

On a per capita basis the country that recorded the most new cases this week was again Serbia with 644 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, ahead of Mongolia (463) and Romania (440).

... And most deaths

The US also recorded the biggest number of deaths per day at 1,782, followed by Russia with 899 and Mexico 517.

At a global level the number of daily deaths continued to drop to 7,185, a decrease of seven percent.

Vaccinations

Cuba leads the vaccination race among countries with more than one million inhabitants, inoculating 1.37 percent of its population every day.

New Zealand followed with 1.19 percent, South Korea with 1.12 percent, Australia (1.05 percent), Peru and Vietnam (1.03 percent each) and Taiwan (one percent).

The United Arab Emirates and Portugal however have the most advanced vaccination drives, with 85 percent of their populations being fully vaccinated.

They are followed by Spain (78 percent), Singapore (77 percent), Denmark and Uruguay (75 percent each), Ireland (74 percent) and Belgium, Canada, France and Italy (73 percent).

© 2021 AFP